Analyzing Information Efficiency in the Betting Market for Association Football League Winners

Lars Magnus Hvattum

Abstract

Sports betting markets have attracted a fair amount of research over the years. For association football, most of this research has focused on predicting the outcome of single matches and hence on the evaluating the efficiency of the match results betting markets. This paper presents a study on the betting market for league winners, a market that operates for almost a full year and therefore operates under different conditions than the relatively short-lived match results markets. Attempts are made to analyze both weak and semi-strong forms of information efficiency. Although the results are mixed, there are some indications that the market is inefficient with respect to both forms of information.

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